Lidl remains “fully committed” to opening a new store in Bath, despite pulling their planning application.

The budget supermarket chain had long planned to build a new store off London Road, which would have brought up to 40 new jobs to the area.

Currently, the only budget supermarket in Bath is the existing Lidl off the Lower Bristol Road on the far side of town.

But neighbours protested at the plans to build the supermarket on a field dubbed an “inadvertent nature reserve” last summer and almost 1,200 people lodged objections to the plans.

Now the planning application has been withdrawn. But a spokesperson for Lidl said: “We remain fully committed to opening a new Lidl store in Bath to give even more households access to high quality, affordable produce.

“To ensure that our application is as robust as possible and contains the results of vital highways surveys, we have withdrawn our application with a view to resubmitting it later in the year once we’ve had an opportunity to carry out these surveys. We look forward to working with the local Council on the updated application and to providing further updates to residents in due course.”

Joanna Wright, the local Green councillor on Bath and North East Somerset Council, said: “Myself and councillor Saskia Heijltjes, as ward councillor for Lambridge have been against the development of a supermarket at this site because we know already how problematic and congested the strategic road network is on the east of Bath. This site would have caused even greater disruption to local highways, whether you are a driver, cyclist or walker.

“Coupled with the real threat of impacting our UNESCO status by placing a superstore at a historic gateway and threatening local businesses, this application was never going to get through planning. That’s why Lidl have withdrawn this application, they don’t want to be seen to lose. No doubt they will try again.

“The fight will continue to stop any supermarket being built on this site.”

In total, 1,194 people lodged objections to the plans on Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning portal. 402 people lodged comments in support, while 23 people also left uncategorised comments.

But others were in support of the move. Susan Lock commented: “Bath is in need of a further discount store and this design presented at the current Lidl’s store shows an awareness of the requirements of a green build.”